Crushing Sands
by Silver Rose Petal Thorn
Summary: Lost after WW3, Sakura must find new life in this barren world. The life she was looking for wasn't one she found. The happy green lands was more of underground villages and odd people who looked to her for saving. Now she stuck in these Crushing Sands.
1. Prolog

Author's Note: Well everyone, I decided to make a Naruto Fan Fic. There are a lot of out there, but I hope to add something that no one has read yet. A heads up This does not take place in the normal Naruto World. I do not own Naruto or any of the charters, hence the reason they do no act how they normally would in some situations. Hope you like R&R.

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Emerald eyes over looked the ruins of the world that had once been lush. Destroyed in the last world war that took place only ten years. The woman stood upon an old building side. Long pink locks flowed around her in the wind. She wore a black halter top and a pair of to big pants and boots with spikes. Her gloves that covered her fist had spikes on them as well. Her pale flawless skin peeked out every once in a while when the wind moved the large brown leather duster to reveal her toned stomach.

Sakura, one of the few people still remaining after the war, sighed and racked a hand threw her hair. She knew she wasn't the only one out there, but in all her travels she had not come across anyone who was still living and was not mutated into something else. The radiation of the war had changed those still living, those who were not mutated into something else where continually worrying that they might. For the mutation sometime took year to start forming. Sakura knew this all to well. She herself was mutated into something else. It was physical, but something else. She had the ability to do things that she had only read in books.

She was able to pull energy into her self and convert it into many other things. If she did the right movement she was able to summon things as well. Taking another look at the land she lifted the hood of the brown trench over her head and started walking once again. It seemed like hours before she was able to find something that would work as shelter. It was a beaten down old shack, but it was still standing and for the most part was holding up fine. She sighed and walked inside only to still.

The shack had hidden a pair of stairs leading down into the earth, something she had only seen when the war had ended suddenly. It would lead to the Underground, a place where the mutated lived during the day. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes. She sensed movement below her, but it was not like the mutations she had come across before. No, it was teaming with life, Human life.

Sakura felt her body tremble in both fear and excitement. Human, real humans, she had found people like her. Before she could walk down these stairs though she hear someone walking up and quickly hid behind some boxes.

Naruto grumbled as he and Kiba walked up the stairs to hunt. The blond really hated going to the surface, nothing fun was there and it took him away from his love, Hinata. Kiba though seemed to like going to the surface, as well as Akumaru, a mutant dog that Kiba had grown attached to. Grumbling the whole while of walking up the stairs he hadn't noticed that Akumaru was on the defensive and was growling. The large while black eared wolf dog mutant took a tentative step in front of the blond before snapping his jaw onto his orange shirt, stopping him from going farther up the stairs. Naruto realizing something was a mist finally stilled and sniffed the air along with Kiba.

Sakura watched as a boy with shaggy dark brown hair walked up the stairs. She knew there were others, she could fell them, but only this humanoid looking person had stepped into her vision. He had on a while jacket with white fur trim around the hood. it was more a faded gray from age and black pants that were taped at the ankles, as if to keep it out of the way so he wouldn't trip. She kept her breathing level and kept her eyes on his back.

"Oh come on Kiba, it's nothing, Lets get this over with before Garra Sama gets annoyed that we are late...Again" came a loud voice that caused Sakura to wince slightly. The owner of said voice appeared next to the man named Kiba. He was about the same height as Kiba, a little shorter, blond spiky hair, blue eyes and oddly enough three black lines on his cheek. Behind him was a creature that made Sakura tense. A mutant dog, who was staring right at her with big black eyes.

"Shut up, Akumaru knows that there is something here, remember last time that you didn't listen to him, dewb" shot Kiba. Sakura tried to back away more from the three, but found that the boxes weren't as sturdy as she would have liked. As she took a step back the boxes fell with a loud crash, bring the two humans attention to her. She felt her mutation kick in and bring forth energy to her fist and feet for the upcoming fight that she though would happen.

The two looking at the cloaked figure and was unsure of what to do. They were unable to discern any features from the person who had moved, Akumaru though seemed to be more defensive then offensive, witch meant that this person was human, well that was until Akumaru felt the mutation kick in, then the hair on his back shot up as she growled at the person. The person only seemed to become more tense and with that the person moved. It was so quick that Naruto almost didn't have the chance to move in time. He felt the energy whoosh past his face by millimeters. The sheer force of the energy though cause a wound to form on his right cheek.

He growled as he felt blood trickle down. Akumaru wasn't much help. Upon seeing the attack he had whimpered and now in his smaller form was cowering by his owner, who also was little help as she stared amazed at what had happened.

"Hey, watch it, you -" Naruto was unable to finish as a fist slammed into his gut and sent in flying threw the shack and outside into the ruble.

Sakura turned to the other boy and the Mutant dog. She was expecting more of a fight then this, but these people seemed helpless almost, as if they were simply humans, but there genetic make up was telling her other wise. Suddenly she felt more life movement coming up the stairs. swearing softly under her breath she glared at the now smug looking boy.

"my friends will be here soon, how they wont like what you have done to Naruto" he said with a snicker as he jumped at her. Sakura brought her arm up in defense as he slammed his fist into it. She felt her bones quiver under the pressure of the punch. He came at her again and again, each time getting closer to landing a blow on her. Then he hit her, square in the head. A kick so hard it snapped her head tot eh other side and flung her out of the shack.

She landed hard on the ruble and groaned, her leg was broken and two of her ribs from the impact. she didn't have enough time to heal her self or even alive some of the pain before someone was one her, holding her down. Voice muddled together and caused her head to spin in pain.

Naruto looked down at the person who was hit him, ready to tear them apart, until he saw her face. She had dirt smudged on her face, a little trickle of red liquid from her lips, pink hair and such fair skin. She almost matched the beauty of his love Hinata. Kiba stood behind him, along with Choji, Neji and Rock Lee. The four seemed to have their own thoughts about the girl. Kiba smirked smugly, even though he had Ino, he was a play boy, Neji was indifferent like he normally was, Ten Ten was the only one for him and Rock Lee, well tears flowed down his face as he went on a rant about youth.

"Hey Naruto, I think she's passed out, you can get off her now" Kiba said with a small snicker as Naruto quickly got of the pink haired girl with a light blush playing upon his face.

"we better take her to Garra, she attacked us, she looks human and Akumaru seems okay with her now" Neji said in a cold tone as the Mutant dog walked up to the girl and sniffed her and the nudged her, as if to wake her. They all nodded and Rock Lee agreed to carry her.

The red head sat calmly behind a worn out oak desk in a dimly lit room. It was a large room, but mostly covered in piles and piles of paper work and other objects that he had collected over the years. The metal door to is office sounded with a loud urgent knock before a breathless blond bust threw the door. His sister Tameri took a deep breath.

"Garra, Kiba and Naruto brought a surface Dweller, shes seems human, but they need your presence in the Air locks" she said once she had breath again, Garra was up in an instant. it had been years since they had a surface dweller and he was more then willing to leave is office to see who it was that had been brought down into their humble abode.

He traveled down the underground tunnels, people moving out the way upon seeing their chieftain of sorts. He had taken hold of this little underground world a year ago after his father died and was keeping it running so that no one died and all the while he was helping with trying to find a cure for the radiation, he even went as far to experiment on him self. A small smirk appeared on his lips as they walked. He came to the metal air lock doors and opened them to enter the compression room. The air hissed and became ticker as it let in the air from the outside world into the locked off chamber. After a few minutes of the annoying sound a door on the other side opened and four people walked in, the boy with black hair cut in a bowl carried the person who he had came here to see. Once the other door shut the room once again gave a hiss as clean air was replacing the dirty air and a disinfectant was sprayed on each person, get rid on any radiation that hadn't been taken and absorbed into the body yet.

Without words Rock Lee set the person down and the first thing that Garra noted was it was pink hair. Long flowing lock of cherry blossom colored hair. He stepped closer to the person to get a better view. The second thing he noted was that this person was a female, a rare thing to still be alive now, since the rotation took it's told on women much harder then on men. He brushed a few of those pink locks away from her forehead and touched three fingers on a triangle on the middle of it. Closing his eyes he concentrated on his own mutation and entered the girls body.

Her DNA was fine, nothing seemed wrong with it, as if she was purely human, if Garra hadn't of know what a Mutant gene looked like he would have missed it, for it intertwined with her own DNA as if it had always been there since her birth. It was amazing to see such a thing in a woman, since most of the time the mutant gene normally attacked the rest of the DNA until it was dominate and turned the woman into a mutant. though this woman showed little almost no signs of mutation, even though fifty percent of her DNA was mutated.

Garra returned to his body and gave the other a small nod. Naruto burst out in laughter and his annoy voice fill the small chamber as he babbled tot he others, who had been watching intensely. Garra walked to the metal door to enter the underground world once again and was greeted by who he was about to get. The old woman smiled at him, already knowing it seemed, that she was needed. She entered the room after Tameri and Garra had left.

She took one look at the girl and smiled as she motioned to two other people. They entered the chamber, picked up the girl after placing her in a container. The container was all metal beside a small glass panel that allowed people to look in and the person inside to look out. The container was much like a coffin, but air was being push in and purified when leaving. A holding containment until everything was cleared for who ever was in it to roam about freely. Tsunade looked back at the others and then went to do her work as head scientist.

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Author's Note: Hey I hoped you liked chapter one, It's short, but I made it short to see if I should continue on or just leave it alone because people wont like it, it's a pilot chapter you could say ^^ Anyways review if you like or even if you dislike it. I want to know if I should continue this story or note. If i can get Five Reviews I will make the next chapter or Five Faves, which ever comes fist ^^


	2. The Settlement

Chapter Two

Tsunade went about her work n the young woman. The lab she was in was closed off to the rest of the underground village, just in case. Grabbing a needle she walked over to the pink haired woman. Blood test would have to confirm that she would be safe in the village. Setting the needle down on one of the close by metal tables Tsunade proceeded to remove the dusty clothing the girl was wearing. The brown duster was the first to be incinerated, Tsunade couldn't take any chances of it having radiation on it and infecting the people even more. Then the black halter top. For being such a surface dweller this girl had flawless skin, no scars, only freckles lined her body, those were even light in color though.

Removing the rest of the girls clothing Tsunade examined the girl. It seemed not every part of her skin was unmarred. She wouldn't have seen it if she was looking over her entire body. On her neck hidden by her hairline was a small little scar, one of a swirl and then a point on the left of it. She had seen this mark before. More then half of the village held this mark.

Needing a better view of this mark, since it seem off, Tsunade grabbed a pair of scissors. She didn't feel bad as she chop the pink locks shorter until they came just below the girls jaw line. Getting a better view of the mark she gasped. She had been right. Something was off. Instead of it being a swirl like she had first though it to be it was a circle with a point tot eh left and in the middle was a hour glass with a line above it. She had never seen this mark, but it was like someone had mixed the mark of Gaara and Naruto.

The sound of movement woke Sakura from her forced sleep. She went to move only to find her body wouldn't listen to her. She curse to her self. How could she be so stupid. She attacked humans, well she though they were human, but no human could cause that much damage or even hit her that fast, something was different about the brown haired man. Finding her mutation she traveled threw her body to the part that were broken and started to mend them, only to find out she couldn't, as if something was stopping her.

Sakura gasped when cold hands touched her broken rib. Her eyes shoot open to glare at who ever dared to touch her only to be see old blue gray eyes. They stared at her with curiosity clear in their depth.

**"awake so soon, I had barely started my testing, I would have though that you would be out longer"** her voice held humor in it, even though she was old her voice was full of live and if one didn't know what she looked like they would have though she was a younger woman.

Sakura tried to speak only to get hushed by this woman with a warm smile.

**"you are in my lab, I doing some test to find out if you are safe to be released into the village, My name is Tsunade, I'm the head scientist here in this little village, also if your wondering why your mutation isn't working it's because I put this lovely little thing on you"** she said bring Sakura's arms into view.

Sakura took notices of the black band that was on her wrist. It had a screen on it witch said stable. She was confused, stable, what did that mean. what was going on here.

**"calm down, the stable means that your mutation isn't taking you over, meaning you are safe to be in the village, though to make sure you stay stable this bracelet will not allow you to use your mutation, after a lot of research I have learned that the more you use the mutation the quicker it takes over your body"** she explained as she continued to examine Sakura.

Sakura suddenly shivered, realizing now that she was cold for some reason. She moved her head to look down, only to find her self naked. Her face heated up as she tried to move to cover her self. A laugh though caused her to stop and look at Tsunade.

**"now now child, no need for that, I have seen many naked bodies in my life time, both male and female, your's is no different, no need to be shy with me, also no need to worry about someone else seeing you, no one will be allowed in until I have them permission"** she reassured and Sakura calmed, if only a little.

It seemed like hours before Sakura was able to move again, Tsunade had patched her up the old fashion way with a new twist. The medicine she used would help her heal faster, instead of seven month of bed rest it would only take three weeks. Though Sakura still would have preferred one day, but Tsunade wouldn't allow her to se her mutation.

Once standing Sakura was handed new clothing. It was a pair of black shorts that were covered by a pink half skirt. It was more of just two pieces of fabric sewed together to cover the back and front, but not the sides. The shirt came just below her breast, revealing her toned stomach and pushing her breast up to show them off. It was pink and black as well with white trim. A circle was in the from, showing of her cleavage, which she didn't like to much. She was also given fingerless gloves and a pair of blue black sandals. All in all the outfit was comfortable, even though she dislike how much skin she was showing.

Looking in the mirror she sighed. She had been told that Tsunade had to cut her hair and Sakura wasn't pleased about that either. This place was slowly getting on her nerves with everything that had happened to her already. She brushed her hand threw her short locks and sighed again, turned to meet Tsunade and three new faces. She hadn't even heard the door open.

She knew, well had seen, the other two. One was the blond she had punched and the other was the dog boy who had kicked her. The third though caught her eye the most. He was a bit taller then Sakura, dull red spiky hair and pale skin. His eyes though were what drew her to him the most. Those expressionless sea foam green eyes.

Gaara was surprised to see the girl even up, she was looking in a mirror when he, Naruto and Kiba walked in. He asked Tsunade the condition and was pleased to hear that she was safe to bring into the village. When she turned to see them shock was on her face for only a split second. As she looked at Kiba and Naruto it was clear she didn't like them and when she looked upon Gaara everything seemed to change. Gaara felt the world shift under him. He knew the felling and forced him self to look away from her. He looked to Tsunade and she nodded.

She walked over to on the cabinets and pulled out a vile of green clear liquid and a needle. She extracted the substance and walked back over to Gaara and stuck the needle in him. Gaara closed his eyes and let the medicine do it's job. He felt his mutation calm and recede thankfully.

Sakura watched as Tsunade gave the red head a shot and was a little confused. She had seen something in his eyes move, something dangerous that caused her own mutation to react, though it was weak she could feel it and it caused pain. She clenched her fist and jaw at the pain. Tsunade was right there when she saw her in pain.

**"Hey, what have I told you about using you mutation"** she scolded.

**"Sorry Tsunade, I don't know what happen there, but it just happen"** she said rubbing the back of her head and laughing with a grin at Tsunade.

**"Well alright, but no more little miss, okay time for introduction. The blond is Naruto"** Tsunade pointed to him and he gave a thumbs up saying believe it, witch caused Sakura to giggle. **"that's Kiba**" she said pointing to the dog boy and Sakura rolled her eyes at him when he winked at her. **"and the red head is Gaara, the village leader"** Sakura started amazed at Gaara, he looked only a year older then her and yet he was the leader of a village. He seemed unfazed by her stare, though he never looked her in the eyes.

**"So what's your name? pinky"** Kiba said with a smirk. Sakura glared at him and the nickname.

**"Sakura" **Naruto was the first to greet her warmly. he came up to her and gave her a big hug.

**"No hard feeling about the other day"** he said when he let her go and held out his hand to her. Sakura nodded and shook his hand. She had a feeling that they would get along just fine.

Naruto and Kiba started to argue about something that Sakura didn't care to listen. once Kiba said something about another girl Sakura tuned them out. She turned to Tsunade who was handing her something. Looking at it Sakura looked at her confused.

**"It's medical supplies, I would like to see you learn how to use it so you don't have to use your mutation"** she explained and Sakura thanked her. She turned to the other three and gave them a small smile.

**"Come on, Let me show you around the village"** Naruto said grabbing her arm and pulling her towards a door.

**"Naruto, isn't that Gaara's job, he is the leader of this place"** Kiba said and Naruto paled slightly as he looked back embarrassed. Naruto looked to Gaara, asking with his eyes permission to show Sakura around. Gaara simply nodded and turned towards Tsunade to talk with cheered and then once again started to pull Sakura along.

When they left the lab Sakura still at what she saw. Everything was of lively. Even though they were underground the place was well lit, enough so that it seemed like the sun was shining in. The village was like a dome almost. It spiraled down to a large platform where shops where set up and schools. lining the swirling path was houses and small little shops. It was warming to see so much life as if nothing was wrong. Naruto kept pulling at her, leading her down the twisting path to the center of the village where life bustled about. He went on how this was the market place and school area. Sakura could barely hear him, lost in her own amazement. So many different faces, all normal, all human. Tears welled up in her eyes, she had found something she never though would be possible to see again, life. Naruto looked back at her and saw tears in her eyes and instantly stopped, asking her what was wrong.

**"Nothing Naruto, I just though I would always be alone"** he pulled her into a tight embrace.

**"you wont be alone anymore Sakura-chan, Gaara has accepted you in this village and the village will accept you, now, to take you to where you will be staying"** he grinned at her as he pulled her once again threw the crowd toward a hall that went farther into the ground.

They kept walking until they came to a small old styled Japanese home. Sakura looked at the wooden home and wondered if everything was made out of wood inside. Naruto dragged her inside and she was surprised to see the the inside was actually made mostly of metal. It was a tiny little home and she was fine with it. The kitchen and living room had no wall to separate them and there was no dinning room. Off to the left was a hall down it was three doors. the first as to the bathroom, tiled floors and yellow walls. the next was a laundry room, well more of a closet, only enough room for the washer and dryer. The last door was to a room. it was a good size for one person. a futon sat in the middle and a dresser off to the side with a table int e middle of the room. It was cozy to say the lest. other then that there wasn't much else to the house except for another door in the living room that lead to a small garden room. it had artificial sun light that allowed pants to grow and herbs where already growing. Sakura turned to Naruto with a smile.

**"it's lovely" **

**"glad you like it"** came a new voice, this one was smooth, deep causing something inside Sakura to shiver. She turned tot he voice to find Gaara in the door way, leaning against the fram with his arms crossed over his chest. **"you can have to room until I'm able to get construction on a new room started" **Sakura tilted her head to the side, looking at him confused. He did elaborate, he simply made his way into the home to the living room and took a seat in one of the chairs. She turned to Naruto.

**"this is his home, there aren't any open homes and Gaara is normally not here, so you don't have to worry, plus he want to watch you to make sure you wont be a threat to the village"** Naruto explained as if it was normal to live with someone you didn't even know.

**"you have to be kidding me"** Sakura looked between the two and saw that they were not.

She liked the ideal of being with people, with humans and all, but to live with someone she only knew the name of was way beyond insane to her. She felt her mutation spike once again and her bracelet beeped, reminding her not to do that. She growled softly, clenching her fist as the blue glow formed around her fist, she was trying to control the mutation, but for some reason it wasn't listening to her. She felt icy hands on her own before she was pushed to the ground and pinned.

**"I wouldn't do that" **the voice was barely a whisper, but more of a growl, once again an unwanted shiver ran down Sakura's spine. Why did he have such an effect on her. She felt something slip into her skin and tried to move away from it.

**"GAARA"** a female voice rang in the home and suddenly the weight from Sakura was lifted along with a thud a few feet from her was heard. Sakura lifted her head to look over at what made the sound to see Gaara against the metal wall, slumped over. **"sorry about that Pinky"** came the female voice again in front of her. Sakura looked at the woman. She was tall, had blond hair tied into four ponytails and blue eyes. She was very well build for a woman.

**"It's not Pinky, my names Sakura"** she said standing up. The blue glow from her fist had disappeared.

**"Temari"** she said holding out her hand to Sakura, which she took.

Sakura looked over at Gaara as he stood and glared at her. Temari simply shook her head. **"you know, you need to control your self more little brother, one of these days it might just take over otherwise"** she warned, even though her voice was stern it was also concerned. Gaara only grumbled something under his breath and left. Sakura turned to Temari with a confused look. **"Gaara's mutation is unique to say the lest, he can enter a person's blood stream and see the mutation, but the bad side is that another being to say is living inside him. He is boarder line mutant, He's in control most of the time, but sometime the little demon slips up, it seems though that he's taken a liking to you" **she said with a smirk.

**"why do you say that**" Sakura asked, from her view it was more he disliked her.

**"if he didn't you would be dead already"**

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Authors Note: Ta Da! the second chapter is up and all that other stuff ^^. This one is a little odd I know, it's basically setting everything up. To explain a little. Chakra is now caused by mutation. Everyone has their own mutation so it's not generalized where every one can do everything, no, now it's every one has their own "technique" that only they can do. I though it would be a cool ideal ^^. What Temari means by Gaara another being is living inside Gaara is that another personality (The raccon Demon) lives in Gaara. The other personality is of the mutant he will become if he becomes a mutant. If you have any question feel free to ask them.

The third chapter is being worked on and hopeful will be up sometime this month ^^. Review, I like to know what my readers think about this


	3. Poison

Author's Note - DO NOT OWN NARUTO clearly...anyways that's to my fans to have encouraged me to continue writing this, I'm having fun with this story more then I though I would, lol ^^

WARNING:

there is rape in this chapter towards the end...well rapeish...you'll see what I mean when you read it.

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Chapter Three.

Weeks had past and Sakura was learning how everything worked in this place of humanity. Every week the villagers would go to Tsunade and her lab to be checked. She would check to see if the R.M.B, Radiation Monitor Bracelet, was working correctly. She would check to make sure they were healthy before letting them go back to work. Females, the few that was alive was heavily protected and well cared for. The men would give their own food to a woman if their wasn't enough before they would reduce the amount of food. There were three groups in this humble village. The hunters, the workers and then the Gatherers.

The hunters would go tot eh surface and hunt for food. Their hunting shift consisted of days out side on the surface and many times the group would come back with injured or news that one of the members had turned. The workers consisted of males that were either too old or too young to be hunters. They would make homes, heavy lifting and mining for material and making more space. The gatherers where the woman. Sakura had been placed with them and really disliked the way she was treated.

She had been on her own since the war, she had protected her self and was self affection, yet here she was being treated like a child, not able to go anywhere without one of the males following her to make sure she was safe. She was unable to do anything that would stress her out mentally of even physically, witch in turn stressed her out. It wasn't all back learning how to cook, sew and other home making things, she had meet a few woman that she liked and got along with.

Tenten, a Chinese girl with dark brown hair that she tied up in two buns. Brown coco eye, oval face and olive skin. She was about the same height as Sakura, maybe a little shorter. She was one of the few woman that got to do something dangerous. She was a weapon smith, a damn good one too. She was sneaky as well, she would find ways to train with the weapons she crafted, she would say it was to test them if she was caught. A few times she had brought Sakura with her to train, one of the small things that would release some stress.

Then there was Temari, Gaara's sister. She was a little hard around the edges, but once Sakura got past that she learned she was only that way to protect her brothers. Often she would tell Sakura her troubles or vent to her about something. Still Sakura's best friend had to be Ino, the odd ball blond girl that she fought with often . Their relationship was goofy, they could tell each other anything but fight every day only to be laughing the next.

Even with people who she liked and got along with Sakura was still on edge all the time. She was unable to get her pent up energy out with out someone stopping her. The R.M.B didn't help either. Many times Sakura would wake up to Gaara pinning her in the middle of the home the shared. When asked he would simply tell her that she was sleep walking and trying to use her mutation. After the third time of it happening she was forced to go to Tsunade. The old woman had told her that she was to ware not only one bracelet, but two, so her mutation was more under control. Since then Sakura had only woke up once to being pinned.

Today was the day that the girls would be allowed to go to Myra field. Sakura had never been, but the other girls had side it was where very rare plants and material that Tsunade used grew, but only every three months did the marital ripen. There was also the fact that mutants lived in that part of the mines. How they got there no one really knows, but these Mutants were different. There were eleven, each one looked human, they were intelligent like humans, but their blood said that they were no longer human. When the girls went to the Fields they had to go with a large group of males and never stray far from the group. They also only had an hour to gather everything they could.

Sakura was dressed in her normal attire of a pink halter top, pink skirt and black shorts underneath, black books and gloves that kept the bracelets from digging into her skin. Walking out of the home she shared with Gaara she smiled when Hinata, Ino and Tenten where standing there waiting for her.

**"Good morning Sakura-chan"** Hinata said with a low bow. They girl was so sweet and well mannered. Her long black hair framed her lush body that was covered by baggy clothing. Her eyes were pale, the mutation that ran in her family was an odd one. It allowed her to see peoples mutational flow. Upon seeing it she could black the man flow points, stopping it completely for a few hours to even days. Even though the mutation was genetic, there was a slight difference between each family member.

**"Good morning Hinata-chan, Ino, Tenten"** Sakura said walking up beside them and following them to the check point where they would meet everyone else.

**"So what's it like living with Gaara?"** Ino asked, a question she liked to ask every day, one that Sakura for what ever reason would not elaborate on as much as the blond wanted her to.

**"Odd I guess, like I've said, I'm not use to living with people in general"** Sakura said with a shrug as the rounded the corn to meet the group. She was a little surprised at how small the group really was. Besides her, Hinata, Tenten and Ino, Shizune, Temari and Kurenia where present. Well at lest of the females. There was plenty of testosterone. Naruto, Kiba, Kakashi, Gai, Rock Less, Genma, Asuma, Konkuro, Ibiki, Shikamaru, Iruka, Neji and Gaara had all shown up. They were all talking and laughing when they approached them.

Naruto was the first to notice their arrival and rushed over to Hinata, pulling her into a big hug as he kissed her. Kiba then proceeded to make his way over to Ino to welcome her and Neji to Tenten. Sakura felt a little left out. Kurenia was with Asuma, Shizune with Kakashi, Temari with Shikamaru and the rest had their wives of partners at home. Sakura, Gaara and Konkuro where the only ones without someone. This of course made Konkuro think that she was free game.

He strutted up to her as if he was the best thing in the world. Really Sakura found him repulsive. His shaggy brown hair, dark eyes and pale skin was not something she found attractive, the purple marks on his face didn't help either. Then again even if he was attractive she would dislike him because of his personality.

**"Hey Pinky, coming along as well, just stay close"** he gave her a wink and she just rolled her eyes. How very unoriginal.

**"oh shut up Konkuro, I had to drag your ass back here last week because you couldn't even take care of a level one mutant, if anything she'd be safer if you stayed here"** came Naruto's voice before Sakura could say anything. Kankuro's face turn beat red with embarrassment and anger as he turned towards the blond. Everyone just laughed while Sakura smirked.

The sound of metal doors hissing open brought every ones attention to the Field doors. When the opened they revealed a very tired young looking Tsunade. She looked at everyone before, without saying anything, leaving. Everyone looked at each other before moving into the contentment room. As the doors shut the hissing of air being removed and replaced was all the filled the room. The males seemed on edge and instead of the happy go luck expressions she was use to she was getting killer like auras from them and even the females seemed to be on high alert.

Time seemed to go by to slow for Sakura as she waited for the doors to reopen and reveal the field she had heard so much about. She could feel her heart beat thumbing against her chest, the sound of rushing blood in her ears blocked out all other sounds. The lights in the white room flickered and then the doors opened. As soon as they did all the male seemed to disappear. Sakura blinked a few times at their speed and went to step out, only to be stopped by Kurenia.

**"Wait"** was all she said, her red eyes looking out at the darkness.

So Sakura waited and waited and waited. She could see nothing past the doors, nothing besides darkness. No sound besides breathing come from behind her from the other girls. It was only made more adrenaline rush threw her veins. Suddenly light flooded from the darkness, leaving Sakura blind for a few minutes. When her vision finally came back she was greeted by a sight that took her breath away.

Arrays of color splattered across the cavern wall and floor. Some gave off a glow in the light. What everything was Sakura didn't know, only that what every these organisms were, they were breathing or at lest looked like they were. There was a small water pool off to her left and ran a stream threw the middle of the lighted area. Sakura could only on wall. The others were not hit by the light created by the lamps. For all she knew that this seemly large area was only a little piece of what the cavern really was. Stepping out of the white room she paid little mind that Gaara and Ibiki where following her. She made her way carefully threw the field of colors, looking at the glowing mass that was at her feet, it seemed any little pressure would cause the moss to glow. The little flowers that grew in the mass were a vibrant purple, three petals sprouted from a gray center. She knelt and went to pluck one of the tiny flowers only to have in disappear with he gentle brushed it. It seemed the flower had retreated in the moss.

A small smile appeared on Sakura's lips as she went to check out a few of the other organisms. The next one she came by was by the waters edge. It was a flower that reminded her of the plant birds of paradise, though this one was yellow instead of red and blue instead of green. Reaching towards it she lightly touched the center petal that was sticking out. It felt slimy and bumpy. Sakura snatched her hand back just as the flower snapped shut, nearly taking her hand. She glared at the plant before moving on.

There where some many different things to explores and look at in this place, Sakura could see of this place could be dangerous, beside maybe the two types of man eating plants she had run into. She spotted a plant that looked out of place though. She looked around to see if anyone was watching her and it seemed Gaara and Ibiki where busy with trying to get Rock Less out of one of the larger plants. Taking this opportunity to check out the plant at the edge of the lights she quickly moved over to it to study it more.

The plant was a dull green, all the colors of the plants she had seen where very vibrant and very few had green in them. Yet this one grew tall and was a dull puke color green. It almost looked like a venues fly trap. She stepped in front of it, still not learning her lesson not to touch plants she knew nothing about she reached out and placed her hand on the outside of the plant. Surprisingly enough it was warm, really warm. The plant was breathing like the rest, but something in the back of her mind was telling her to move, and quickly.

As she went to move she found her limbs ignoring her, they were frozen in place. Panic filled her as that large venues trap started to move, opening up to reveal something that if Sakura could scream she would. A man, with two toned skin and gold eyes, looking at her like she was food. One side of his body was black where the other was white, he was completely bar from head to toe, though with no manly bits. Though Sakura wasn't too worried about being raped as she was being eaten.

Strong bi-polar arms reached out and gripped her shoulders and started to drag her closer inside the mouth of the plant, towards the body. Sakura heard her bracelets started to beat loudly as her mutation acted up, trying to save her from what ever was threatening her. The sound alerted everyone that something was wrong and they turned towards her. Sakura heard a few swears, from who she wasn't sure, everything was started to blur together in both her vision and hearing.

Gaara snapped his attention to the direction the loud beeping was come from, his breath stilled in his chest at the sight his eyes witnessed. The pink haired girl who had been staying with him was being pulled in by one of he mutants that looked like a plant. A growl emitted from his lips as he dashed towards the scene, making it there well before the others. He reached forward and wrapped his arms around the girls waist and pulled back. He ignored the beeping from his own bracelet as he let part of his mutation take over to help him. Dry sand that was by the rivers edge slithered quickly to help Gaara in his task. Ibiki was pulling on one side of the plant and Naruto on the other, both trying to stop the every closing mouth.

The sand he had call forth twisted around the body in the middle and started to crush inwards. A sickening crack was heard and both the mutant and Sakura let out a scream, though the girls was much more high pitched where the plant was more of a howl. Gaara once again growled as he pulled more on the girl with the help of three others. His sister, Shikamaru and Kakashi. He could fell the girl limp in his arms and could hardly hear her breath of her heart beat, maybe she was dead. The sound of a groan told him differently. The plant started to skin into the ground, treating to take everyone with it. With one late attempt Gaara wrapped the sand around the girl and him self and pulled with everything he had.

Air rushed past his ears as he flew backwards with the girl in his arms. His sister, Shikamaru and Kakashi had been thrown as well, where Ibiki and Naruto laid still on the ground, Hinata and Kurenia fussing over them. Rage built up in Gaara as he sat up and looked down at the girl. She had been stupid and nearly cost him not only his sister but everyone else life. He looked around at everyone. No one seemed dead, but a few he could tell were in critical condition, the poison from the plant, Zetsu, was strong and killed with in an hour.

**"Quickly, take them to Tsunade**" He yelled at everyone. His sister walk up to him, she was a little dirty, but only seemed to have a few cuts and maybe on bruise. She looked at him sternly.

**"Better take her as well Gaara, she was hit with it the most"** She said earning a growl from him.

**"I should have just left her"** he muttered getting a glare from Temari. Without saying anything she picked the pink haired girl up and looked down at him disapproving. She walked quickly with the others to the door, Gaara stood and followed as well, not one bit happy with the girl.

Tsunade was expecting something like this to happen. She knew Sakura was reckless and bring her to an area she had never been after having her confined for so long was trouble, but she wasn't expecting others to come in hurt or even dying along with her. Rushing around the lab she gathered everything she was going to need and ordered everyone out except for Shizune, her assistant.

**"Shizune start working on the antidote for the Zetsu poison"** she order the shorter woman as she rushed over to Sakura, who was in the worst condition. The antidote wouldn't work on her anymore, she had gotten to high of a dose for it to counteract it without it killing her. The bad thing about the poison the mutant used was it was a viral poison that attracted the blood stream. It was fast acting, first latching on to the nerve system, shutting it down and then moving to the blood and infecting it so even if the nerves where cured the blood wouldn't be and with in an hour the blood would all be infected and then it was shut down the whole body by stopping blood flow. It was a painful process that for the longest time many people infected with it died for there was no cure, but now if caught soon enough it could be, other wise Tsunade had to do something she hated doing, wait.

She would have to wait until Sakura's body fought against the poison and dispelled it on her own or died from it. Tsunade was pretty sure that the young girl would be able to fight it, her mutation was as strong as those who had won against it before, but then again no female had ever survived it, even with the similar mutation levels.

Tsunade watched as the girls skin paled, her lips turned blue, body stopped giving off warmth and sweat poured from her pores. All signs that her body was fighting, but losing. What worried Tsunade the most though was that it seemed the girl was dreaming. That only meant that the poison had already made it to her brain and that the poison was working faster then it should.

_Drip…..Drip….Drip….._

_Darkness, no light only the sensation of floating filled the pink haired girl. She could remember nothing. Pain exploded all around her like fire. The sound of something falling into water echoed threw the darkness, warmth spread form the points of pain. As much as she strained to see nothing revealed it's self to her. Only the pain comforted her and told her she was alive. She tried with all her might to move, but her limbs felt as if made of lead. She tried to scream, to speak, her lips moved, but no words escaped the pale lips. Pain once again explode in her body, this time in one central place, her lower back. With the pain the felling of something warm running down from the wound followed. Nothing felt real yet all too real. _

_Laughter soon sounded threw the darkness. Eye of molten lava came into her sight. Where had she seen those eyes before. Those eyes of amusement and hunger plastered in them._

Tsunade stood still as she watch the scene unfold in front of her. Green lines spidered out on Sakura's pale skin. First it had only been a small little green dot on her neck, wrist and stomach, but now the lines rapid dale started to spider out from the dots on her skin. A new symptom that she had never seen before. The bracelets had broke off and clattered to the floor and the blue glow that normally flowed around her hand appeared. She hadn't even noticed that Gaara had reentered and was looking over her shoulder at the pink haired her.

**"once she is healed escort her to the main door"** his rough voice sounded behind her and Tsunade quickly turned with fire in her blue eyes.

**"She has a 3.76 percent chance of getting out this alive, do you not realize the severity of the situation young man, you many be the leader of this village, but you need to think before you speak, Young Sakura is dying and you walk in here and demand her exile" **her voice reach a new level in anger with each word. The only time someone was escorted to the main door was for when they were exiled.

**"She nearly killed nineteen people to day and maybe even her self, I will not risk another mistake like this again, she will leave this settlement if she ever wakes again"** He said sternly before turning on his heel and going to leave, only to have Tsunade grab his wrist and hold him in place.

**"If she wake she will not make another mistake like this or I will personally escort her out of settlement"** The threat was clear in her voice that she would watch over Sakura if she ever healed. Gaara said nothing only nodded and left once released.

Tsunade let a sigh fall from her lips as she turned back towards the girl she had become attached to. She was dying, slowly and she could no nothing, never in her life helpless. She had to busy her mind as she waited, so the woman went back to her research, many time looking up and watching Sakura every once in a while.

Days had past and Sakura condition had not changed. Her heart rate was elevated, breathing heavily, pale, cold to the touch, yet sweating, unmoving beside the occasional twitch and the green lines that had shown up covered her body. Tsunade had tried everything she could think of, even giving the girl some of the antidote, it seemed to work, but only for a hour and not completely. Hinata, Ino and Tenten visited every day to check on her and Temari did once. The four where very concerned for the girl, almost as much as Tsunade was.

What ever was effecting Sakura it wasn't the same poison that she had cured so many times before, other then that she knew nothing. Tsunade sat at her desk reading over the test results of yet another test she had formulated in trying to figure out what was effecting Sakura, only to come up with nothing yet again. The only thing that Tsunade could come up with that would help Sakura was if Gaara used his Mutation to reactivate Sakura's or boost it, but doing that could end Sakura's and even Gaara's life and she couldn't risk losing either.

_She was stuck, unable to move, unable to scream, only able to fell the pain in the darkness as her body was violated over and over again. Each time it was different. It would be a different place, even a different person some times, but it all ended the same. Her screaming wordlessly for them to stop, only to be hit, raped and then thrown back into this world of darkness. She didn't know how much time had passed, only that if she counted the minutes she knew when her new attacker would show up, when the next time she would have fight would be, the next time she would lose. _

'_three…Two…One' as the word entered her mind light flooded her vision and in place of the darkness a dark room with a single bed with red sheets appeared. She laid on the bed of red silk, her arms tied above her and feet below her, legs spread. She knew this room all to well. It was the bed of the man who had taken a particular interest in her and often she would find her self in this room. _

_She had never seen his face, he made sure that at the end of her fight she was blindfold so she wouldn't be able to see him. She knew his touch though, his rough, uncaring enticing touch. The touch of a killer, the touch that forced unwanted feeling to boil in her, the touch that she begged for and despised all in one. _

_She heard his chuckle first, she knew if she could see his face that he would be smirking, lust would fill those steel ringed eyes and burn over her naked body. She pulled at the chains that held her, like every time this room appeared the chains where stronger then her. She couldn't struggle as much as she would have liked, kicking her legs the best she could against the wooden bottom where her feet where held captive she tried to brake the wood. To her surprise and the man in the room it had worked, her feet were free, but not for long, for he was between her legs before she could kick up and brake the wood holding her chains for her hands. _

_Sakura gasped as she caught a glimpse of the mans face before the blindfold was once again placed on her face. His orange hair was short and spiky, three silver rods seemed to be place on the bridge of his nose and then there was the two pointed metal fangs at the bottom of his lips that Sakura always felt both pain and pleasure from. He was handsome, Sakura was expecting him to be ugly, hence why she had to be blindfolded, because he was ashamed of his face, but that was not the case, why was she blindfolded. _

_The first lash came as a surprise to Sakura as she let out a wordless scream. The whip came once again across she stomach, leaving a red welt next to the other. With each new lash another wordless scream passed from her open lips. By the time she felt no more lashes she had lost count of how many times she had been hit, all she new was that her stomach, legs and arms stunk like hell and anytime the moved pain rippled threw her body. _

_When she felt him once again between her legs she stilled, knowing what was going to happen next, even in her pain fogged mind. The familiar felling of being rip in two accompany the fell of pain from the lashes. A temporary felling that would soon disappear. He went slower then normal, letting his rough callused hand brush over her warm skin. Tears soaked the blindfold. She could feel her body betraying her once again, moving in time with his thrust, her body desperately trying to urge him faster and deeper, so that he might hit that lovely little spot that made her numb. _

_His hand worked their way over her body, finding each sensitive spot, make soundless pants and moans fill the room of darkness. Tenderly his fingers reached for one of her cherry pink nipples, twisting it lightly and playing with it until it was a nice round nub. She felt him lead down and his tongue flicked over her other nipple, gained a moan and arch as her body tied to get him to do it again. He complied, taking the cherry bud in his lips, the cold metal of the two fang lake piercing brushing against her soft skin only added to the thrill rushing threw her body. _

_She could feel the slow coiling in the pit of her stomach, an action that she would forever be ashamed off beckoned forward and moved her hips to move faster, urging to go faster. He too had the same urgency her body did. His pace quickened, his trust became deeper as his hand gripped her hip tightly in place. His lips had left her breast so lat he could trust deeper into her. _

_Indescribable pleasure erupted in her mind, making her body numb as it clench tightly around the mans member. The felling of his release only seemed to rocket Sakura higher in a place of disgusting bliss. Even though she knew what was to happen next she was unable to move, unable to come down from her orgasm quick enough. The felling of cold metal ripping into her stomach jerked her from her bliss, darkness flooded her mind, leaving her to once again wake later to only go threw another event similar. _

Tsunade looked at Gaara with hopeful stern eyes. She had told Temari her plan and the blond had gone to her brother and convinced him to hear Tsunade out. She had explained to him that the only hope they had of ever getting Sakura to wake was either to find Zetsu, capture him and study this new poison directly or if Gaara him self help Tsunade wake Sakura up. The first option was not one Tsunade liked, considering capturing the mutant would be hard and also studying him would take longer then she would like and she didn't know how long Sakura would live. Though the chance of Gaara choosing option two was very slim. The red head had been staring at Sakura and Tsunade for two hours already, thinking everything through Tsunade hoped.

**"fine, what do I have to do"** Tsunade let her breath out that she hadn't known she was holding and smiled warmly at Gaara, her blue eyes hold great thanks towards the red head for agreeing.

* * *

Author's Note: hope you like this, the next chapter is being worked on, wont be up for a while though, I'm going to be moving to a place with no internet so once it's finished I have to find a place I can upload it at or wait until I get internet...


	4. Mutants?

Chapter Four

The process was seemed simple enough, but then again the more simple it was the harder it really was, at lest with Tsunade. The first step wasn't that bad, they had to tie her down after unclothing her. Gaara had little problem with it at first, but then again when the action was done he was more uncomfortable then he though he would have been, his mutation he had guessed didn't like it one bit, for it was acting up and screaming at him to do something he couldn't understand. Tsunade had noticed this little reaction and gently place two white cloths over Sakura's breast and womanhood. This seemed to help, but that little shine was still in his eyes that told her that he was still having a little problem.

The next step was getting Gaara to use his mutation to reawaken Sakura's. She had seen the mutation die out after the third day and that was when the green lines had spidered out all over her body, where they had been only over half. Her calculation was that her mutation had been fighting it off. So if her mutation could be reactivated then maybe Tsunade's new antidote would work. Grabbing Gaara's arm, which held the bracelet she typed in a code and the metal contraption fell clattering to the floor. Gaara nodded his head before stepping closer to the table that held Sakura.

Placing his hand on her forehead he closed his eyes and activated his own mutation. The shock that ran threw his veins did not slow him from his mission. Getting into her blood stream was harder then it had been the first time, vines blocked his path, making him have to rely more and more on his mutation to get him threw. It was seemed that the green lines were not only on her skin, but in her DNA. Gaara was unsure of how long it had taken him to find the single strand of DNA untouched by the green vines that also had the mutation in it. Once he did though, he started the next step of the procedure.

Concentrating on the location of that single little strand Gaara pushed energy into waking the mutation up. It was one of the most difficult things he had ever come across. With the vine interfering only a small percent of the energy got to the designated destination. Even so it seemed enough to spike the mutation awake. It was interesting to watch the red strand suddenly start to glow blue and send wave after wave of blue energy out to the rest of the mutated strands. Gaara pulled himself out, not wishing to be forced out like the green vines were.

Gaara's eyes fluttered open to be staring up at the light fixtures in the lab and Tsunade standing over him. He didn't remember being on the floor. The scientist had a smile on her lips and tears forming in her eyes. She placed a cold hand on his forehead before turning around and grabbing something. Gaara then felt something snap around his wrist, his mind was foggy and he couldn't quite remember what had happened.

"oh, he's finally up is he" Gaara turned towards the voice to his left to see Sakura walking into the lab. Confusion showed on the red heads face as he looked at her. The last time he remembered she was laying on the lab table, dying. "Miss Tsunade, I think there's something wrong with Gaara" she said a little unnerved by the way he was looking at her as if she was the walking dead.

"It perfectly normal Sakura, Gaara probably doesn't remember anything, happens every time he uses his mutation to much" at these word Sakura blushed and looked away, for what reason Gaara couldn't figure out. Tsunade's word floated around in his mind for a little bit before he sighed and slowly sat up.

His whole body was stiff and cracked as he moved, as if he had be still for days. "how long?" he spoke as he lightly touched his aching head.

"about four days" Sakura said with a small shrug as she went about the lab as if she was a worker. Gaara watched her move about carefully and looked to Tsunade with accusing eyes. She said nothing, only smirked at him as she went to work beside Sakura.

"Lady Tsunade, if we use a little less Greenwood and add Wyrm's tongue we might just be able to counteract the poison faster then before and make it safer so when they get here late we can still save them" Sakura said looking over papers, her emerald eyes scanning over the information quickly. She showed Tsunade her work and the woman burst into a smile.

"very good Sakura, that would be more effective, though if we add to much Wyrm's tongue we could kill them, so how much would be safe" she sated more then asked. Gaara watched as the two woman pondered over the question, seemly forgetting that he was even there.

"3 kilograms, that way it keeps it's effect, but isn't deadly" Sakura answered after a long silence, getting an approving nod from Tsunade Sakura went over to the lab equipment and started to work on the new antidote.

Gaara had taken the liberty to change while the girls where debating about scientific stuff that Gaara had little interest in. Hearing Tsunade behind him he glanced over his should at her as he slipped on his black shirt.

"you can't get rid of Sakura, she has done to much for the settlement while you were passed out, if she had not woken up many of our female population would have fallen victim to a new kind of poison that the mutants from the fields created and disputer into our air" Tsunade said crossing his arms over his chest lazily. Gaara looked back at Sakura. Had she really saved the settlement while he was out, but then again if it wasn't for her he wouldn't have been out to begin with and would have stopped the attack. He said nothing as left the lab to go about his business and catch up on what he had missed.

Tsunade sighed as she looked back at Sakura, who was looking a the lab door with a hurt expression. She said nothing, knowing why that expression was upon her beautiful students face. Sakura had broken down as soon as she had woken up and told her everything that had happened. From the torture to the rape, everything, every little detail. How when she had been saved from the poison she had seen Gaara and he had helped her out of that darkness. Even since then she had been edgy around men and buried her self in work, as if to forget everything, but seeing the red head she guessed reminded her that he had saved her and from what it was that she needed saving from.

Sakura looked back at her work, trying once again since she woke to forget everything that had happened in her poisoned state. Even though it had all been in her mind, it all seemed to real to being though as a dream. Looking in the microscope she looked closely at the two compounds, seeing if they were reacting correctly with each other. Seeing them harmonize made Sakura's heart warm, clear meaning that this new antidote would work quite well. Glancing up at Tsunade she let a small smile play on her lips.

"it's going to work, now all we have to do is send it threw the blood test" Sakura left the station for Tsunade, so she could get a looks as well and go about setting up for the blood testing.

"Thank you Sakura, you should go home though, it's been a long day and I know you haven't been sleeping, try and get some sleep will you" Tsunade said looking up at Sakura, concern clear in her eyes. Sakura gave a weary smile before bowing and leaving. Shaking her head Tsunade went about her work.

Gaara had arrived home late into the night. He had so many papers to look over, new recruits to judge, defuse fighting families, punish some members who had been working with the mutants, kill one member who had changed into a mutant and so much more. By the time he had walked into the metal and wood home he was weary and nearly asleep already. Slipping off his shoes he walked down the hall to his left towards his bedroom. He slipped into his dark room, taking his shirt off and falling onto the bed.

Hearing movement Gaara quickly moved him self to pin what ever was in his bed. His body pressed again something warm that felt of silk. A yelp emitted from the being beneath him, waking him completely up and something deep with in him as well. Sea foam green eyes peered threw the darkness at the face under him. There staring back him was wide emerald eyes. Her face flush, the image of cherry blossoms in the whiter flash in his mind, the ting of pink against her pale skin, called forth the beast with in him to capture those parted lips, to change that face of fright into one of lust and pleating. Her bare chest brushed against his with each one of her ragged breaths.

Silence over came them as they stared at each other. She couldn't move, not only was her body pinned but frozen. She had though one of the men from her nightmare had found her in real life and wished to take her back, but when she saw though sea foam eyes and red hair she knew it was only the man that had saved her and some of her fear had gone away, replaced now by embarrassment as she realized their chest were touched, skin to skin.

"um….G-Gaara….could y-you please get off" she said in a low whimper as she adverted her eyes. She didn't know how far he had unclothed and didn't wish to find out.

Upon hearing her voice he growled, a sound that rumbled deep with in him self. He knew he should get off, her, break the contact of their skin before his beast consumed him, but he couldn't. As much as the beast tried to control him a part of him wanted it to, to take over and do something he could not. It was a long moment before he move to sit up and off her at the end of the bed.

Sakura pulled the thin covers over her chest, even in the darkness she felt as if he could see her as if they were in a brightly light room. The way his eyes seemed to glow in the dark caused her to doubt that this man was really Gaara. She tried to find her shirt that she had tossed on the bed before going to bed so that she had something other then the thin cloth covering it. In the darkness of the room though she could not. She heard movement and stilled. Had Gaara decided that maybe he didn't want to leave her just yet, did he maybe want to jump he once again. Her heart raced with the possibility of having him on top of her again as he mind chastised her for having such thoughts. Soon she felt something get shoved into her chest and grabbed onto it in an attempt to stop it from pushing her down. She felt the coarse material for a moment.

"Put it on" his voice frightened Sakura into obeying. Something dark lingered in his rough voice, something that told Sakura he was fighting again something that was far worst then any mutant she had come into contact with.

She hastily put the oversized shirt on to cover her self. The long sleeves went past her hands, the bottom the shirt when to her bottom and the neck hung loosely around her, but didn't show her breast, just her collar bone was revealed to the darkness. She tugged at the bottom of the shirt and looked anywhere besides where Gaara had been sitting. She took a few calming breaths.

"t-thanks" she said softly and yelped when she was once again pinned to the bed. The lights outside flickered on and Sakura's breath caught in her throat. One of Gaara's eyes was as golden as the setting sun, four black dots in the iris, full black where white should be and his pupil was like a little plus sign. She felt her heart pick up more a of a frantic pace as his grip tightened around him. The loud beeping of his bracelet long forgotten by both of them as Sakura started to panic and try to escape. In her panic she did not hear her own bracelet reacting.

A blue glow started to surround her, causing everything to shift with in the room. A growl like nothing Sakura had ever heard emitted from Gaara as he shook, a red glow started to surround him as well. They two auras moved around them and clashed against the others. The mended together almost seamlessly. Suddenly Gaara was thrown from Sakura.

"Sakura! Sakura!" the loud booming voice of Tsunade entered Sakura's deaf ears and she slowly turned to the direction of the voice. She saw the panicked woman that she worked with and then nothing but darkness surround her. A familiar feeling of floating consumed her.

It only took three hours for Sakura to wake and when she did she shot up from the metal table she knew all to well. Her breathing was ragged and sweat as cold as ice pour from her pores. Her whole body shook with a chill though she felt as if she was on fire. Tsunade was at her side in seconds.

"Sakura! Your awake, thank god, I though I had lost you" The elder woman hugged Sakura tightly before letting her go and then quickly injecting Sakura with something that instantly made her fell better.

Sakura took in a deep calming breath and looking at her hand, it was no long shaking. "what happened?" she said in a soft voice. She couldn't seem to muster up anything louder.

Tsunade didn't answer for a long time and this cause Sakura to look up at the older woman, what she saw made Sakura still. Behind Tsunade in a glass case was Gaara, well something that looked like Gaara. Sakura jumped from the table and walked slowly over to the glass case that held the village leader. Half of him looked to be made of sand, a form of some kind of beast taking half of him. The other half was Gaara, sleeping peacefully. She shivered as she looked at the beast side, it's golden eye seemed to be looking straight at her, accusing her of something she knew nothing about. Tsunade placed her hand on Sakura's shoulder and looked at Gaara.

"Something cause his mutation to react strongly to where he tried to take over, what you see now is what Gaara's mutant is" Tsunade's voice was quite, saddened and Sakura knew why. This meant Gaara was turning into a mutant. "The same almost happened to you, Sakura I hate to ask this, but before we arrived, did you perhaps threaten Gaara?"

Sakura turned to Tsunade with a look of disgust on her face. Her heart clenched tightly. How could Tsunade think that she would try to hurt Gaara, sure he had wanted her Exile, but other then that he had been nice to her, well kind of.

"Tsunade I would do no such thing, I was simply sleeping and he came into the bed, he did not realize I was in the bed and pinned me when I moved, that is all" she said her face becoming flush. She would not mention that she had been naked and he had been without clothing as well…not completely.

"I know Sakura, but this had never happened unless he believed him self in great danger, did your mutation maybe try to hurt him?"

"No, it didn't even react until he pinned me again and I saw his eye wasn't normal"

"Again? So he had let you up and then pinned you again? Why?"

"Because he…." Sakura looked away from Tsunade, unwilling to explain.

"Sakura I have to know, it could mean a way to revert the transformation"

Sakura hugged her self and looked over at Gaara. She really didn't want to say, but he couldn't have Gaara killed because she was unwilling to embarrass her self in front of a woman who already knew everything about Sakura.

"I wasn't warring anything and he gave me his shirt, I said thanks and suddenly he pinned me again" she said looking down at her feet.

Tsunade sighed and rubbed her temples. None of this made sense. Gaara shouldn't have reacted so strongly to that, not in that way though, maybe and erection, yes, but transformation, no. She turned to the case that held Gaara and crossed her arms under her breast. What kept him in such a state, why was he not fully transformed. She had done nothing to stop it, she couldn't, but he seemed to be suspended between him self and his mutation.

Sakura looked to Gaara once again and stepped close enough to touch the chilled glass. As soon as her fingers touched the glass Gaara's normal eye shot opened to stare right at her, causing Sakura to jump and Tsunade to curse. Tsunade went to pull Sakura away but as she did Sakura's mutation flared out and blocked her.

"Sakura! Stop!" Tsunade yelled as she tried to get to the pink haired woman once again, but failing as she was pushed away by something invisible.

Sakura shivered as she stared up at Gaara, the back of her neck started to burn. Even so she couldn't move or even breath for that matter.

"S-Sak-kura" his voice sounded so strained, so deep, so lost. Sakura nodded her head and touched the glass once again and closed her eyes. She didn't know what she was doing, she was just going off of her instincts like she did so often. She felt as if she was getting small and smaller, getting crushed into small little pieces. She expected pain, but something warm blossomed inside her, something soothing and she soon lost her self in. Light flashed in front of her self and she soon found her self in a room of white.

In this seemingly empty room a table stood in the middle. Laying upon this metal table was a puzzle and a note. Picking up the note she read it, the words echoed threw the empty room.

"When one believe in them self they can save others, when one believes in others they lose them self"

Sakura paid little mind to the odd words and turned to the puzzle. She had always like puzzles and soon she was putting the pieces together. She started with the edges, working her way inwards. She didn't thin, she just did. She didn't know how long it took but she place the last piece and looked at the whole puzzle to see that a piece was missing.

"when one believe in them self they can save others, when one believes in others they lose them self"

The words repeated in her minds. Over and over until she place her hands over her ears and screamed, blocking out the sounds. She couldn't think, not with the constant chant. She needed to figure this out, she didn't know why, but she had to, she felt somewhere inside of her that if she didn't she would lose more then just her mind but something much more important.

"believe"

Sakura did just that. She believed that she could find the answers to her question that she could complete this puzzle. That she could do it with out help. She looked at the puzzle and watched a the missing piece shimmered into place. As it fully materialized another flash of light blinded her.

Tsunade could do nothing but watch as Sakura dissipated into nothing but a find mist with pink petals floating inside of it. That mist slipped into the case that held Gaara and surrounded him. She watched as she thrashed and fought against the unseen being. She watched as his eyes rolled back into his skull and the heart monitor stopped beating. She watched as he died. She watched as the mutation receded deep with in him. She watched with tears in her eyes as he was brought back to life. She watched as the case opened with a hiss and he stepped out of the cold container with Sakura curled up in his arms, sleeping peacefully.

Tsunade rushed over to them and took Sakura from Gaara and set her on the table that the girl was on to often and started testing her to make sure she was fine. She did the same with Gaara, one right after the other.

"Tsunade" Gaara's voice broke Tsunade from her panicked work and stilled her as she turned to see Sakura waking up once again. She slowly walked over to them, as not believing what she was seeing. Soon Sakura was fully awake and sitting up.

"ouch, I really need to stop passing out" she said with a small chuckle as she looked up to see Gaara back to normal and Tsunade's panicked tear stained face. She looked between the two and blinked a few times.

"SAKURA!" The woman's face went from tear stained to red with anger. "how dare you use your mutation in such a reckless way, what were you thinking, you could have killed your self and Gaara, or worst turned, we can not afforded to lose either of you, the next time you decided to do something like that at lest warn me" Sakura cringed as she was lectured about being reckless.

"Sorry Tsunade, I wasn't thinking, I just kind of reacted" she said looking down at her hands as heat raised to her face.

"Tsunade, calm your self, we are both fine, now get back to work" Gaara's voice came as he took a seat on one of the tables, waiting from the test to start, though a slap to the back of his head came first. He looked back at the elder woman with a glare. He was expecting to fell the beast rise up and he was ready to fight it, but the felling never happened. He and Tsunade shared a look of understanding before Tsunade gabbed a needle and drew blood from Gaara.

She took it over to be tested and while she waited for the results she did the same to Sakura. Who unlike Gaara tensed from the needle and had to look away, earning a chuckle from the red head. Sakura just glared at him.

"Hey it's not funny" she said with a small pout.

"Yes it is" was all Gaara said.

"No it's not, needles are perfectly normal thing to dislike" Sakura defended her self.

"nope, just you"

"I am not, I know for a fact that Naruto hates them, Hinata faints when she sees them and Konkuro cries" She said with a huff and crossing her arms over her chest.

Gaara just chuckled again with a smirk as Sakura clenched his fist.

"now now children, no fighting in my lab" Tsunade said as she looked at the results of Gaara's test. She blinked a few times before running the test once again. She did the same to Sakura's. Gaara and Sakura looked at each other and then over to Tsunade. She ran the test ten times before making her way over to the both of them with an unreadable expression.

"What is it?" Sakura asked as she heart started to race. If Tsunade had to run the test that many times something must be wrong.

"nothing wrong, in fact you both are perfectly fine"

"well that's great" Sakura said releasing the breath she didn't know she was holding.

"No Sakura, you don't get it, I mean you are perfectly fine, as in you have nothing, I mean nothing wrong with you, I expected it from you Sakura, since your mutation is so closely bonded with you, but not with Gaara, his mutation has always been erratic, but these results are telling me that BOTH of your mutations have fused them self so completely with in you that it is no longer a threat that you will become a mutant"

* * *

Woot, I'm BACK, after almost a whole year I finally have internet and I can post up the chapters I have of this ^^ more to come shortly.


	5. The Cave

Chapter Five

Months had past since Sakura and Gaara have been declare Sages. A name given to them by the village meaning that they were humans complete fused with a mutant that they were forever safe from become a mutant. When knowledge first came out about this people were scared of them. They couldn't believe it, but as the days passed and nothing seemed to change no matter how much to two used their mutation people started to believe. Gaara helped the miners, making more room that was desperately needed. He helped by moving the hardened earth that the picks would not brake. That material was used by Tenten to create better weapons for the people who went to the surface. Less and less people came back hurt, for Sakura would go with the parties tot eh surface and heal the injured before they were so bad they couldn't be helped. There was still the possibility of the hunters turning into a mutant, since Sakura still could not figure out how it was that she had done what she had done.

Since Gaara was able to create more space, Sakura's home was finished quickly and she was to move into this new home today and for some reason Gaara felt like he was losing something. He sat in his living room on the couch that had become his bed for the past six mothers. Sakura was in the room gathering the few items that where hers. Once she was packed she came out and down the hall to where Gaara was. She smiled at him.

"Thank you again for letting me stay here until I had a home, I'll stop by in the morning to get you, remember we have that big excavation tomorrow" Sakura said cheerfully. She felt like crap, but on the outside she look like she did every day, content. She opened the door and left with out another word. She made her way to her new home in complete silence. The village had already shut down for night and only the lights left on for the guards kept her company.

The dirt path that lead to her home wasn't very well lit, that area was still under construction, but Sakura didn't care. She wanted to stay at Gaara's but that though alone was what made her leave. She had been alone for ten years and to lean on someone now would cause something in her to be lost for ever and she wasn't willing to part with it just yet. Taking a deep breath she opened the metal door to her new home and stepped inside.

It was much different then Gaara's. Sakura just told her self it was because it didn't have anything in it to that was why it felt empty. The lay out was even different. When you opened the door it opened into the kitchen. The Kitchen was white metal walls with tile covered floors. Fully applianced with a stove, oven, dish washer, coffee maker, fridge and a toaster. She smiled a little, Tsunade must have stopped by before Sakura got her for a small fern from the Myra field was on the counter with a little note. Sakura didn't have to read the note to know it was welcoming her to her new home.

Sakura looked over at her living room that was to her left. A half wall separated the kitchen and living room. A door way with no door way was the only entrance into the fully furnished living room. Stepping into the living room she looked around a little. A lavender couch sat against the half way, a small end table on each side, one had a lamp. A lavender love seat sat to the right of the couch, sitting against the wall. A red oak square coffee table laid in the middle of the room. Under it was a shag lavender rug, contrasting against the plain white carpet. The walls had been painted a soft lavender to match the furniture. A book self was placed on the far wall, already filled with an array of book ranging from suspense to science.

Sakura chuckled slightly before turning around to go down the hall to check out the others rooms past the kitchen. The first door on her left lead to a full bather room. White like the kitchen. The next door lead the bed room. A mattress on the floor and a dresser was all the greeted her. She guessed the Tsunade wanted her to pick out her own room decorations and colors, for it had been left white as well. She left the room and went to the last door at the end of the hall. She opened the door and couldn't help but smile.

Tsunade had created a green room. She had filled it was many different plants that she knew Sakura loved and in the corner was a lab. Tsunade also knew how much Sakura loved to work. She would have to hug the old woman when she next saw her. Taking a deep breath she shut the door and reentered her room. Setting her small bag onto the dresser she told her self she would get to unpacking tomorrow, for now she was exhausted and she had a big day tomorrow excavating the area they had found early that day. She laid down on the mattress and closed her eyes, intending on sleeping, but it would not come. For the rest of the night she tossed and turned, trying to get her restless mind to sleep.

Gaara watched as she left and kept him self very still. All he wanted to do was get up and pull her back inside, but he knew better. Just because Tsunade had said that they were cured he was completely positive that he was. He felt that at any moment the beast would wake from it's slumber and take control of him and he couldn't have Sakura round if that happened again. He didn't know how long he had forced him self to sit there but soon he stood and headed for his room. A place he had only been a couple of time since Sakura moved in. He walked to the door and looked into the room and couldn't seem to get him self to go into the bed.

He growled to him self in frustration and went to the couch to sleep. As he laid down his mind kept him up, something it did often, something that didn't effect him to much. He counted the minutes till the light turned on in the village. Knowing he would get no sleep he busied him self with his daily process. Taking a shower, cleaning up and getting dressed. He dressed in more lose fitting clothing today. He was going to be working hard and sweating a lot, he didn't want to over heat.

He decided against a shirt and slipped on a pair of wrap pants that loosely fit around his hip to where he had to tighten the string to keep them up and even then the slipped a little. He put on a pain of black boots and then slipped the goggles to rest upon his head. He heard and knock at the door and knew the others had arrived. He sighed and went to the door.

Sakura stood chatting with Naruto about her new home and what Tsunade had done as Konkuro went to knock on Gaara's door. Sakura had paid a lot of attention to her image today. She had plastered as much make up as she could to cover up the black circles under her eyes, but not enough to where it looked like she had a lot of make up on. She had pinned her hair up neatly so that it would not get in her way. She had also fixed her self a new outfit out of some old material she had.

She wore a black halter top that she had made straps for, for safety of course, didn't want the girls accidentally popping out. She had taken the pink from the spandex shorts she normally wore off and wore just the black spandex. She had attached five small pouches to a belt that she wore, each one holding a different thing that she though she might need. From food pills to test tubes. She had also borrowed a pair of Naruto's boots. She didn't have any that didn't expose her toes and that wouldn't be good for the work they would be doing. When Konkuro and Naruto came to pick her up they had been shocked into silence. Konkuro was the first to speak of course, once again trying to get into Sakura's pants, hence the red hand print on his cheek.

Naruto on the other hand wouldn't look anywhere besides her face. Something Sakura found cute and she felt a little sorry for ware such clothing when he was trying so hard to be faithful. Once she showed them why she wore this though they wouldn't be attracted to her anymore and would think her a brute, but she didn't really care. When she heard the door open she looked and her breath caught.

She had seen Gaara shirtless before, but for some reason something seemed different. His pale skin almost seemed to glow in the artificial light. Her eye traveled down his tones body to his waist where she could see red peeking out from below the black wrap pants. Her heart fluttered and her whole body clenched as she quickly looked away, trying to hid the blush, but failing because her hair wasn't there to hid her face.

"What's wrong Sakura your all red" Naruto said bring every ones attention to her, cause her face to brighten. "Sakura, are you sure your feeling up to working today, you should go see Grandma yo-" before he could finish Sakura turned and punched him.

"Shut up Naruto, I'm fine" she said crossing her arms. Konkuro wolf whistled and Sakura dropped her arms, realizing by doing that she had lifted her breast. Sakura heard a smacking sound and looked to see Gaara walking out of his house and Konkuro rubbing his head. Gaara stopped in front of Sakura and looked her up and down before turning and starting in the direction of rock lee, one of the other helpers. Sakura started to walk as well and she heard Naruto complained about them leave him along with Konkuro.

It took an hour to get everyone that was to go on the excavation, but once everyone was rounded it Sakura realized that she was the only woman going on this thing. All in all there was Gaara, Konkuro, Naruto, Rock Lee, Gai, Kakashi, Ibiki, Shikamaru, Iruka, Neji and then her self. Once everyone was rounded up they started for the site. It wasn't to far from where Sakura's new home was, but it was far enough that it took then another hour to reach the site.

When they got there they could all feel the difference. Normally the village was warm, the body heat of everyone and the core of the earth heated the area, but this area was chilly, causing goose bumps to form on Sakura's skin. She steeled her self and wouldn't show her discomfort. She walked forward to where Gaara was. The entrance to the site was blocked off by rocks. A small cave in must have happened after everyone left. It wasn't uncommon since it had not been stabilized.

Sakura walked forward and looked at the structure of the slid and took a steep back when the rocks started to move. She looked back at Gaara who was staring at the rocks, moving his hands every once in awhile to place the heavy material else where. Once the area was opened Sakura stepped back and let the others go first. She had been told so many times that she was never allowed to go into a new area first, that the guys had to go first to make sure it was safe. Once she was given the okay she walked inside of the cavern.

The area was much different then anything that they had come across. Unlike the Myra fields that plant life the grew here was normal. It was like it had never been touch by the radiation and was left unchanged. Sakura had already tested a sample of the plants and all of them came up clean . Also the steam the ran threw the cavern to pool into a lake was clean, where ever the water was coming from it to was untouched by the war. The soil was the same. Some of the soil in the village was contaminated, but Tsunade had learned a way to clean it so it was safe to be around. This area though didn't need to be cleaned, it was wonderful.

It was joy to find such a place, it meant that not everything was destroyed in the war, that there was a fighting chance. Sakura went to the lake of water and touch the old surface. She could see all the way to the bottom and see the cave that lead some where new as well. This was what they were here for. They were going to check out where the tunnel lead to. Only her, Gaara, Naruto and Kakashi where going, the others where going to wait here and take more samples and watched for danger.

Naruto was the first to dive in, splashing Sakura in the process. She instantly stepped away and looked at her self. She was soaked and starting to chill. She glared at Naruto when he surfaced. He shivered and complained about the water being cold.

"Fresh water is normally cold, don't pee in the water Naruto" Sakura scolded, Naruto just whined about not doing something like that.

Kakashi walked up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"now now Sakura, no need to be mean to Naruto" he said before he jumped away from him, but not quick enough as he pushed her into the water. She held her breath and she crashed into the water. She opened her eyes under the water and gasped as a fish swam in front of her. She quickly surfaced and got out of the water. Everyone looked at her strangely as she pointed to the water shacking from the cold.

"t-there's a f-f-fi-fish" she said threw clattering teeth. Naruto looked around in the water and started laughing.

"There's a lot of fish, I've never seen so many" he said as he tried to catch one.

"Is pinky afraid of fish" came the testing voice of Konkuro. Sakura stomped her foot and turn to him.

"I am not afraid of fish, I'm afraid of things I don't know are there, if I had known there were fish I would have been fine" she said in a matter of fact voice as she walked over to the waters edge and looked to see how many different kinds there were. Once she counted out five different type she dived back in. When she surfaced she looked at the ones staying.

"There are five different type, catch one of each, Tsunade will want to see them" with that said she dove under water once again. Once at the bottom she pulled out a container from one of her pouches and collected some of the plant life that was at the bottom of the lake floor. She put the container back in her pouch and resurfaced.

Gaara watched Sakura as she came out of the water because of a fish, water dripped from her, sliding down her exposed skin. He felt his muscles tighten and tried to look away but couldn't. He just wanted to go over to her and lick those water droplets from her. First from those slightly parted lips. He followed one little droplet that ventured from those cherry lips down her delicate slender neck to travel down the valley between her breast. He felt an unwanted desire to catch that droplet and follow it back up.

Something coiled in the pit of his stomach and he felt him self tighten and stiffen at his thoughts. He growled a little, something only he heard. He watched as she walked tot eh waters edge and dove in. An action that left him hissing as pain came from his palms where his nails had dug in. Konkuro noticed this hiss and turned to his brother.

"Who, Gaara" He was going to say more but snapped his mother shut when Gaara glared at him. Before anyone could look to see what Konkuro was talking about Gaara stalked quickly over tot eh water and jumped in.

He welcomed the cold water on his heated skin and let it soak way his desire. He resurfaced the same time Sakura did. He looked between everyone and nodded. It was time they got this little journey over with.

"Naruto, Kakashi, you go first, Sakura in the middle" He said earning a whistle from his brother. Just because he didn't day anything didn't mean he wasn't going to test his brother any way he could. Now the man had proof that Gaara wasn't emotionless and had the hots for a certain pink hair lady.

"Konkuro, just because Gaara said I'm in the middle doesn't mean you can take it sexual you pervert" Sakura scolded him with a glare before looking at everyone. "alright lets go"


End file.
